(Minghui.org) When I was young, my colleagues called me “chubby lady” because I was healthy and worked hard. I was known as a good worker who always took first place in any competition. I worked especially hard so I would maintain my reputation.
After a few years, the title of “chubby lady” no longer fit me because I began losing weight and was slender. I became weak and my health was deteriorating. Serious illnesses dragged me down. I used to have a good appetite, but I couldn't eat anything and had severe stomach aches.
For several years I lived on crackers and water. Occasionally I would eat an egg. After seven years, I looked emaciated. I visited countless doctors and had endless physical check-ups at various hospitals. The doctors said there were four very large ulcers in my stomach that were difficult to treat and very dangerous.
Nobody in the family dared to tell me that the doctor felt my situation was hopeless. My husband wanted me to eat more so he often took me to the biggest grocery stores in our area. But I could eat nothing.
Due to my ulcers I was already weak, but then I was diagnosed with hepatitis B and severe rheumatism.
Because hepatitis B is contagious, every time when I went to the hospital for a blood test the doctor told my husband to check and see if he had been infected. I felt bad. My medical expenses were a financial drain on my family.
At that time, qigong was popular. I didn't know what qigong was but because people said it could cure illnesses, I decided to try it. Shortly after I started to practice, my illnesses worsened. I tried different qigongs, but nothing helped. I was frustrated.
Things dragged on until 1994. One day, my son was told about Master's class and he asked me to give it a try. I said, "No, I won't go. I've practiced so many qigongs and none of them worked." When I think back now, I feel regretful that I just allowed the opportunity to slip by.
By 1996, Falun Dafa was very popular and there were practice sites in parks across China. My son mentioned it again. He got me the book Zhuan Falun and suggested I read it, so I did.
I immediately knew that Falun Dafa was special and I decided to practice.
Before I began practicing, I was a heavy smoker. Even when my health was at it's worst I still continued to smoke. At one point my husband threw out my cigarettes, hoping that I would quit.
The day I finished reading Zhuan Falun, I asked my husband, “Did you notice that I've stopped smoking?”
Master said,
“As people who do spiritual practice, we strive to purify our bodies on an ongoing basis and become worthy of heaven. Yet smoking pollutes your body and does the exact opposite of what we want to do; and there are strong cravings involved. If you are someone who knows it’s bad for you and have tried to quit but failed, you can take heart in knowing that it’s hard to quit without the right thoughts guiding you. Now that you are doing spiritual practice, though, you can try, starting today, to regard it as an attachment to break, and see if you can manage to quit. I would urge you to quit smoking today if you are sincere about practicing, and I can guarantee that it’s possible.” (The Seventh Talk, Zhuan Falun)
I told my family how wonderful Zhuan Falun was, but that we also had to do the exercises. My son took me to a practice site. When we arrived, the people had finished the exercises and were leaving. They told us that they had to go to work and that the retirees came later. So I began doing the exercises with them. After about seven days, all my illnesses disappeared.
A week later, as I walked home after the morning practice I bought a bag of rice and carried it home. My family was shocked to see me walk in carrying the heavy bag. The moment I entered, I said I was very hungry and would eat anything. I ate four eggs and still felt hungry. I said I wanted to eat some rice. My husband called out, “You haven't eaten rice for years!” From that day I was back to normal. I could eat anything and my stomach no longer hurt.
Practitioners at the practice site told me that Master was cleansing my body. I was very thankful. I felt like I was reborn.
I was eager to share the goodness of Falun Dafa with everyone I knew. I told my colleagues and the managers at work. No doctors could cure me, yet after I practiced Falun Dafa for only one week I felt great! My colleagues asked if I could teach them the exercises. Thus a practice site was established in the courtyard at our workplace. Within four days, almost fifty people learned to do the exercises, including colleagues, friends and people I didn't even know.
I knew that a Falun Dafa practitioner should pay attention to their character improvement, so I tried to be a good person and do good deeds. I tried to stop competing for fame and self-interest. When people took advantage of me, I took it lightly. I also began treating my daughter-in-law well.
The other practitioners and I often went to remote areas to introduce Falun Dafa. We helped to establish new practice sites. Many of my relatives began practicing after they witnessed the positive changes in me.
Just when many people were joyfully beginning to practice Falun Dafa, the former Chinese dictator and his CCP gang began persecuting us. They slandered Dafa and tried to damage Master's reputation. They arrested people at the practice sites, stopped them from doing the exercises and made up lies to deceive the world. As a result, many kind people were fooled and participated in the persecution.
The persecution seemed so overwhelming it felt like even the skies changed color. Another practitioner and I decided to clarify the truth to the government. It was a challenge to have group study and do the exercises because not only were the police monitoring us, even people on the streets were watching us. When we went to the provincial government some of us were arrested and locked up.
In 2001, more than ten practitioners and I went to Tiananmen Square. We unfolded a banner and shouted, “Falun Dafa is most righteous! Restore our Teacher's reputation!” I was detained and spent the New Year there. When people asked if I was afraid, I said, “I want to safeguard Dafa. I am not afraid.”
After I was released, through Fa study, I learned that it was arranged that Dafa would widely spread around the world in order to save sentient beings, and that the old forces would cause trouble. The old forces don't want people to be saved.
The old forces arranged for mankind's traditional culture to be ruined so that people no longer walked the paths arranged by gods.
We began to produce truth clarification materials like the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party to help people understand what was happening.
Practitioners know that every life is not simple. I don't know how many people in the world were entangled in sicknesses like me, but I was lucky to begin cultivating during this historical moment.
Teacher has given me a second life, and I know that it's my responsibility to help save more people. I believe that clarifying the truth about Dafa is the key to saving them. I hope that everyone will one day know that the reason we are human is to return to our true selves.